New Rolf Carbon Clincher for Consideration/Criticism

[ptourkin]

Sub 1300 grams for the set. MUSA with White internals.

http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/02/25/rolf-prima-builds-ultralight-eos3-road-carbon-clincher-with-new-u-s-made-rim/#more-122358

[cdn_bacon]

forever a ROLF fanboy. Those look amazing.

[stien]

I see they are holding on for dear life the paired spoke "concept". I for one would never buy a paired spoke wheel if not for reliability concerns but because of proprietary parts.

[gasman]

Rolf wheels all over Eugene. Nobody seems to have a bad word about them. I owned a pair of their Elans until I wore the brake track out. Gave them to a young kid who took back them back to Rolf and had a new rim laced up. He's still riding them and has had zero problems.

[adhumston]

I can't decide if I'm a fan of the paired spoke look, but I do really like the fact that they're made in country (at least the rims) and that they use the WI titanium freehub.

[regularguy412]

Data point of exactly 1 here. While helping out in the LBS one summer about 10 years ago, I saw more than one paired spoke wheel come in with the nipple and eyelet pulled through the rim section. IMHO, the spoke tensions have to be just too high and just one little excursion outside the limits (pothole, etc) causes much destruction. The rim did not catastrophically fail, but it was unrideable and unrepairable.

They look great and are a neat concept, but I think it fails in practice.

Mike in AR:beer:

[sandyrs]

Data point of exactly 1 here. While helping out in the LBS one summer about 10 years ago, I saw more than one paired spoke wheel come in with the nipple and eyelet pulled through the rim section. IMHO, the spoke tensions have to be just too high and just one little excursion outside the limits (pothole, etc) causes much destruction. The rim did not catastrophically fail, but it was unrideable and unrepairable.

They look great and are a neat concept, but I think it fails in practice.

Mike in AR:beer:

When Trek was using the concept they were notorious for this failure, but apparently newer Rolf wheels have been less prone to this.

[zap]

One of our tandems has Rolf Tandem disc wheels. Think we got the wheelset 4 years ago and has been solid so far. Trip to France as well. Best performing tandem wheel for us too date.

I still have and use Bontrager XXX carbon wheels that use paired spokes and that too has proven very reliable.

Interested to see what the price will be for these Rolf clinchers........and how it compares to what I consider the benchmark of carbon wheels......Campagnolo Bora's.

[bicycletricycle]

besides a lack or repairability in the case of a rim bending accident or pothole (not enough spokes to tune bent rim), the paired spoke layout works great.

a higher spoke count version would be nice for cross/gravel/big rider

[regularguy412]

When Trek was using the concept they were notorious for this failure, but apparently newer Rolf wheels have been less prone to this.

You are right. They were Trek wheels.:)

Mike in AR:beer:

[Spdntrxi]

I had some ares4 something or other CC.. Their high end at the time.. No complaints , they were pretty nice wheels . Sub 1300 is cool


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[FlashUNC]

Had the Vector Comps on a Trek 5200. Didn't need to touch them over a decade of riding, including some pretty hairy stuff.

Always been a fan, I'll get a pair of their wheels in tubie form one of these days.

[nate2351]

As a company they are great to work with. We had a wheel in the shop that looked toast to us, centimeter of run out on both sides. We called then as a last hope and they sent us a shipping label and hooked us and the rider up free of charge.

I like that all the rims are made in house there in Eugene. I applied there a few years back when a wheel builder position was open, their entire operation is in the loading dock of an office building. They are a very small company, maybe 15 employees.

[jmoore]

Had the Vector Comps on a Trek 5200. Didn't need to touch them over a decade of riding, including some pretty hairy stuff.

Always been a fan, I'll get a pair of their wheels in tubie form one of these days.

I had some Vector Pro's on my Trek 2300. Rode them for 5-6 years and never had a problem with them either. Rolf actually replaced all the bearings at year 4 for no charge.

I sold them on ebay for $200 or somesuch.